MANILA -- Six major provinces in the country were found to have poor signal or no connectivity to enable to transmit election results, the poll body said Thursday.
Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, chairman of the steering committee on poll automation, said the results of the Smartmatic-TIM survey also showed that 30 percent of the areas nationwide lack or have no access to necessary telecommunications facilities.
“Yes, 30 percent have no connectivity but it doesn’t mean that we cannot use PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines there,” Larrazabal explained at the sidelines of the voters education for media conducted by poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) at the Pope Pius Center in Manila.
Gene Gregorio, spokesman for Smartmatic, identified the areas of Abra, Benguet, Samar, Leyte, Zamboanga, and Tawi-tawi.
Based on records of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as of March 17, 2009, Abra has a total of 147,615 voters; Benguet with 328,010 voters; Samar with 442,662 voters; Leyte with 997,244; Zamboanga with 936,797; and Tawi-Tawi with 156,027.
All these sum up to 3.008 million voters.
The Comelec, however, said as of the end of January, the total number of registered voters nationwide reached 50,723,734.
The survey, conducted last October and completed last week, was carried out to help Smartmatic determine which areas it needs to provide telecommunication facility.
Cellular signal is one of the basic requirements for the PCOS machine to be able to transmit the results of the elections.
Larrazabal, however, appealed to the public not to worry as they will install satellite antenna or Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) in these areas with no telecommunication facilities for the transmission of the election results.
“Let me just point out that it doesn’t mean that these areas, this 30 percent, we can no longer transmit the results, we can still transmit the results using the satellite,” the commissioner explained.
He said a technician will be deployed in the polling precincts that will utilize the BGAN.
Comelec already purchased 5,000 BGAN apparatus. The other 70 percent will be using the mobile networks as a mode of transmission.
The poll official also dismissed the possibility of having to go into manual counting in the areas that found to have communications problem.
He said they are mandated by Congress to implement “100 percent full automation,” adding that implementing partial automation would be a violation of the law.
During the voters’ education, five personalities from different media entities were selected, including Doreen Yu, editor of the Sunday Magazine of Philippine Star; Leslie Aquino of the Manila Bulletin; and Luchi Cruz-Valdez of TV-5.
The media personalities had the experience of casting their ballots using the PCOS machines.
The Comelec also launched its one-minute infomercial teaching the voters how to use the PCOS machines during the voting day on May 10. (MSN/Sunnex)